Japanese

Stroke order

Syllable

ぬ ‎(romaji nu)

1. The hiragana syllable ぬ ‎(nu). Its equivalent in katakana is ヌ ‎(nu). It is the twenty-third syllable in the gojūon order; its position is な行う段 ‎(na-gyō u-dan, “row na, section u”).

See also

• (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, ゆゅ, よょ, ら, り, る, れ, ろ, わゎ, ゐ, ゑ, を, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ

Etymology 2

From Old Japanese.^[1][2][3]

Many monolingual Japanese dictionaries^[1][2][3] derive this as a contraction of Old Japanese 往ぬ ‎(inu, “to go away; to pass (such as time); to pass away, to die”); however, the meaning does not seem to make sense in the context of the verb ending -nu.

More recent work by Bjarke Frellesvig and others suggests that -nu may have originated from an ancient copular or stative verb.

Suffix

ぬ ‎(romaji -nu)

1. marks the end of action:
   1. (after the 未然形 ‎(mizenkei, “incomplete form”) of a verb) the negative: indicates negation of the action, ending without starting or occurring -- not

      風 (かぜ)が立 (た)たぬ

      kaze ga tatanu

      the wind does not rise / does not pick up

   2. (after the 連用形 ‎(ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb) the perfective: indicates completion of the action, ending after starting or occurring -- has done, has happened

      風 (かぜ)が立 (た)ちぬ

      kaze ga tachinu

      the wind has risen / has picked up

Usage notes

In Old Japanese and continuing in classical and later Japanese, the ending -nu and the ending -ta have both been used to mark the completion of an action, with two key differences:

1. -ta was not used after the 未然形 ‎(mizenkei, “incomplete form”) of a verb, and thus was not used in negation contexts;
2. -nu was used mainly for verbs that indicated intransitive, naturally occurring, or unintentional actions, while -ta was used mainly for verbs that indicated transitive or intentional actions.

In modern Japanese, -nu is rarely encountered, and it often imparts a formal or archaic sense.

Synonyms

(negative verb ending):

• (very casual, also archaic, also dialectal) ん ‎(n)
• (casual) ない ‎(nai)
• (formal) ません ‎(masen)
• (written formal) ず ‎(zu)
• (Kansai) へん ‎(hen)

(perfective verb ending):

• (casual) た ‎(ta)
• (formal) ました ‎(mashita)

References

1. 1 2 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
3. 1 2 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, ISBN 4-09-501211-0

Okinawan

Etymology

Cognate with mainland Japanese の ‎(no).

Particle

ぬ ‎(romaji nu)

1. possessive particle